Have your country flag visible

[+geonauten]

I always like to scroll through new and found log pages of geocaches around the world. To plan a new trip or to see who also found that cache and read their stories.

 

But the information on other geocachers is limited, it’s their name and picture and the number of founds they have. Can this information be extended?

 

What I like to see is a flag of the country where the geocacher comes from. Now it is very difficult to find out the origin of a geocacher, you have to open his found caches in the statistics and see where he found most of the geocaches, or where he found his first. Both ‘options’ are not very trustful, e.g. in my case. I found my first geocache in Belgium, and most geocaches in the USA, but I’m from The Netherlands.

 

Besides the fun of seeing all the nationalities in our game, it handy to see who logged a geocache. It is useful to get in contact with geocachers, know what language to write, get hints and tips on an area or a specific geocache. And to see what caches are popular with foreign geocachers.

[+wuliwup]

Nice idea, but offering more personal informations to the public must conform with the privacy.

Edited March 5, 2013 by wuliwup

[+Condorito]

Would be interesting, but I don't know how other cachers would like it... I wouldn't mind it though

[+cerberus1]

I could see it as an option.

Doesn't really have much to do with privacy.

What's the difference between a minute to look at the profile and search hides or simply look under their avatar?

- I do miss when our location was in these forums too.

[team tisri]

I don't see how people knowing I'm in the UK compromises my privacy. Anyone who looks at my cache finds can already get a reasonable location of what part of the UK I live in without too much effort, if they are so inclined.

[+2J2M]

I suggest the same thing as well. Showing the flag of the country where the user resides in logs or anywhere on geocaching.com would be very interesting. I live in Canada and was surprise to read a log from a geocacher from Poland who visited one of my caches. If he would have not mentionned the fact that he was from another country I would have never known. I tought it was quite special that someone from another country was at my cache! Same applies when I go to the USA. I always mention in my logs that I made a very long trip from Canada to a cache that I found so that the owner knows that I am not just someone from the neighbourhood which in my mind makes it more special since I live far away and took time to stop and find that cache. Just adding a button in everyone's profile asking to show country flag yes/no and there will not be a privacy issue. It would be a very nice feature I think!

[+Harry Dolphin]

Interesting concept. Yes. It would be nice to know where the cachers are from. This thread got me looking at my second most found cache. 377 finds since September 2007. I can check the log to see if they say where they are from. Or check their profile to see where they have hidden caches. (Half UAE, half Netherlands. All archived.???) Or where they have found caches. (Hong Kong, Belgium, Japan. I have no idea where you are from!) I'm back to 8/2011. Each time I get to my page, I have to scroll down 40 times! Quite tedious! It is an unusual cache type in a popular tourist spot. (Letterbox Hybrid in Central Park, NYC.)

So far I have determined visitors from: Countries: Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Slovakia, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, France, Solomon Islands (?!?), Austria, Panama, UK, Portugal, Spain. US States: PA, WA, NJ, CT, IL, PA, NY, MN, NC, KY, MO, IA & CA. Canadian provinces: ONT, QUE, BC.

Quite tedious, but very interesting. But it would be nice to put up flags. (Is there a flag available for Lihue, Solomon Islands?)

Yes. I would find this interesting to have available. My profile says I'm from NJ. It would be nice if others' profiles said where they are from.

[AZcachemeister]

Agreed!

Country AND STATE where applicable.

I always enjoy remarking to the wife "HEY! People are coming all the way from Switzerland to find my cache!"

[+The_Incredibles_]

I think it would be kind of cool to see a flag next to their name, on their profile page definitely, on the cache page possibly, and definitely on the forum!

[+The_Incredibles_]

Nice idea, but offering more personal informations to the public must conform with the privacy.

 

They can easily find out where you are by looking at where you hid/found your caches.

[+Damy2011]

I like the original idea as well. Additionally, perhaps there could be an option for users to display their city or state below the country flag if they so desire.

[+Kacher82]

I like the idea of having an option to display your flag, country, state, whatever. If someone sees it as an invasion of privacy, they can opt out of having their info displayed. I personally don't see how knowing what country, or even what state (province), a person lives in is going to invade their privacy.

 

FYI, I'm from the state of Iowa, in the United States.

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I think it would be kind of cool to see a flag next to their name, on their profile page definitely, on the cache page possibly, and definitely on the forum!

[/qu and ote]

 

Especially on the forum. So often posts in the forums seem to be written from the perspective of what the poster encounters in their local geocaching community and fails to take into account how different geocaching is around the world.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Nice idea, but offering more personal informations to the public must conform with the privacy.

 

They can easily find out where you are by looking at where you hid/found your caches.

 

Wow! How perspicacious you must be! Do you use a Ouija board? In many cases this will work. But in many cases it will not. With hidden caches, I would assume you are nearby. Might be a state off... But if a cacher has no hides, but his recent finds are: 15 in Japan, 13 in Belgium, 3 in the Czech Republic, then I do not know where that cacher lives. And I've seen many examples like that, So, I'm glad your Ouija board is working. Mine seems to be broken. (At least, that's what I keep telling people at work. Sorry. My Ouija board is broken.)

[team tisri]

Nice idea, but offering more personal informations to the public must conform with the privacy.

 

They can easily find out where you are by looking at where you hid/found your caches.

 

Wow! How perspicacious you must be! Do you use a Ouija board? In many cases this will work. But in many cases it will not. With hidden caches, I would assume you are nearby. Might be a state off... But if a cacher has no hides, but his recent finds are: 15 in Japan, 13 in Belgium, 3 in the Czech Republic, then I do not know where that cacher lives. And I've seen many examples like that, So, I'm glad your Ouija board is working. Mine seems to be broken. (At least, that's what I keep telling people at work. Sorry. My Ouija board is broken.)

 

The odd exception doesn't really prove much of anything. The overwhelming majority of the people whose profiles I have seen show finds concentrated in one or two areas in a way that would suggest one is where they live and the other is either where they work or some other place they visit regularly.

 

Once someone has found more than 31 caches the chances are there will be more of a concentration. The thing with someone's home country is that it's a matter of curiosity rather than necessity - someone with no finds and no hides won't have it so readily available but it's really not that big a deal.

[+Mockingbird559]

I like the idea of having the country flag by the caching name on logs. The profile and forum pages would also be interesting. State name too.

 

Could be a optional checkbox on the profile page, to satisfy those with privacy concerns.

 

I have several Permission caches in a tourist town. I ask for finders to tell us where they are from because I show the logs to the property owners from time to time. Some do, some don't. It is always well received to see those logs from other countries and states.

 

Cache Happy.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Mockingbird559

[+The Vikings]

I agree, seems to be a simple thing to implement.